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The Interdependency of Human Rights As a Solution to the Prostitution Debate

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The Interdependency of Human Rights As a Solution to the Prostitution Debate THE INTERDEPENDENCY OF HUMAN RIGHTS AS A SOLUTION TO THE PROSTITUTION DEBATE Anne Dagenais Guertin Major research paper submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies under the requirements of the LL.M. program Faculty of Law University of Ottawa People choose, but not under circumstances of their own choosing. Inspired by Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte i TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF ACRONYMS..................................................................................................................iii SUMMARY/RÉSUMÉ..................................................................................................................iv THANKS.........................................................................................................................................v PRELIMINARY INFORMATION...............................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: The Abolitionist and Pro Sex Work Impasse...........................................................4 1.1 A Brief Presentation and Critique of the Abolitionist/Pro Sex Work Debate.....................5 1.2 The History and Influence of Abolitionist and Pro Sex Work Groups on Prostitution and Trafficking at the International Level..................................................................................9 1.2.1 The Beginning: the Movement for the Abolition of White Slavery...........................10 1.2.1.1 A Change in Discourse: From White Slavery to Traffic.................................11 1.2.1.2 The 1949 Convention: Prostitution as Exploitation........................................12 1.2.2 Human Rights Critique of the First Generation of International Instruments against Trafficking..................................................................................................................14 1.2.3 Prostitutes Organize: The Birth of the International Pro Sex Work Movement.........15 1.2.3.1 Towards a New Perspective: from the Abolitionist to the Pro Sex Work Stance..............................................................................................................16 1.2.3.2 The Distinction Between Voluntary and Forced Prostitution.........................17 1.2.3.3 Prostitution as Work: A Report from the International Labour Organization....................................................................................................21 1.2.4 The Middle Ground: The Adoption of the Palermo Convention and Protocol...........23 1.2.5 The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Victims of Trafficking: Confusion between Prostitution and Trafficking....................................26 1.2.6 Sex Work and HIV/AIDS: The Struggle for Discourse Dominance within UNAIDS.....................................................................................................................28 1.2.7 The Need for a Coherent International Approach to Prostitution...............................32 1.3 Overcoming the Impasse: Finding Common Ground through the Struggle for the Empowerment of Marginalized Workers...........................................................................33 ii CHAPTER 2: The Interdependence of Human Rights as a Solution to the Prostitution Impasse...................................................................................................................37 2.1 From Research to Research to Inaction: Canada 1970-2011...................................................39 2.1.1 The Fraser Report.....................................................................................................39 2.1.2 Studies and Reports on the Street Prostitution/Solicitation Provision......................41 2.1.3 Bedford: the Charter Challenge to Three Prostitution-Related Provisions..............42 2.2 The Right to Security...............................................................................................................44 2.2.1 Bedford: Working Indoors to Ensure Security..........................................................44 2.2.1.1 Justice Himel’s Reasons.............................................................................45 2.2.1.2 The Principles of Fundamental Justice.......................................................45 2.2.2 The Limits of the Concept of Security in Bedford....................................................50 2.2.3 Justice Arbour’s Dissident Opinion in Gosselin: The Lack of Government Intervention as Violation of the Right to Security....................................................55 2.2.4 Morgentaler and the Right to Engage in Prostitution...............................................58 2.3 The Right to Liberty.................................................................................................................60 2.3.1 Morgentaler and the Negative Conception of the Right to Liberty..........................60 2.3.2 Moving Away from the “Liberty-Equality Dilemma”..............................................65 2.3.3 The Right to Liberty: From Non-Intervention to Enhancing Choice........................67 2.4 The Right to Equality...............................................................................................................70 2.4.1 Substantive Equality: Origins and Definition...........................................................71 2.4.2 Substantive Equality and Neoliberal Climate: A Losing Combination....................73 2.4.3 Gosselin and the Limits of the Language of Choice.................................................74 2.4.4 A Call for a More Complex Understanding of Choice.............................................75 2.4.5 Substantive Equality to Alleviate Poverty: Implications for Prostitution.................78 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................80 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................83 APPENDIX I.................................................................................................................................96 iii LIST OF ACRONYMS CATW Coalition Against Trafficking in Women CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women CLES Concertation des Luttes contre l’Exploitation Sexuelle GF Governance Feminism ICRP International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights ILO International Labour Organization GAATW Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women GABRIELA General Assembly Binding women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome NGO Non-Governmental Organization NSWP Network of Sex Work Projects PACE Parliamentary Assembly – Council of Europe SPOC Sex Professionals of Canada STI Sexually Transmitted Infection UN United Nations UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization WHO World Health Organization iv SUMMARY The feminist movement is divided on the issue of prostitution between the abolitionists and the pro sex work advocates. The former claim prostitution is exploitation and that prostituted people are victims, and the latter contend that prostitution is work and that sex workers are free agents. Both movements strive to occupy the entire discursive and legal spaces at the international and the national levels. This division has hindered real improvements in the lives and work conditions of prostitutes. We need to move beyond this impasse in order to positively transform prostitutes’ situations. In order to do so, we need to take into account the diverse identities, realities and needs of prostitutes in the legal realm. Through this paper, I will present the abolitionist/pro sex work debate in the international arena and an example of its manifestation in Canada, the Bedford case. Then, as a solution to this impasse, I will advocate for an approach focused on the positive role of the state, a renewed feminist solidarity for sex workers and the interdependency of human rights, such as the rights to security, liberty and equality. I contend that only by viewing people who sell sex as rights’ holders can we guarantee that the most vulnerable as well as the most privileged among them will be fully protected and empowered by the law. RÉSUMÉ Le mouvement féministe est divisé entre les abolitionnistes et les partisan.es pro travail du sexe sur la question de la prostitution. Les premières considèrent que la prostitution constitue de l’exploitation et que les personnes prostituées sont des victimes; alors que les secondes soutiennent que la prostitution est un travail et que les travailleur.ses du sexe sont des agents libres. Les deux mouvements tentent d’occuper les espaces discursifs et légaux tant au niveau international que national. Cette division empêche de réelles améliorations dans la vie et dans les conditions de travail des prostitué.es. Nous devons donc aller au-delà de cette impasse en vue de transformer positivement la situation des prostituté.es. Pour ce faire, nous devons prendre en compte la diversité des identités, des réalités et des besoins des prostitué.es dans le domaine juridique. Au cours de ce mémoire, je présenterai le débat abolitionniste/pro travail du sexe dans l’arène internationale en l’illustrant d’une
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